Flashlights for review provided by GearBest.com
The UT02 is compact thrower light from Utorch, with XHP35 HI emitter,and powered with single 26650 Li-ion battery. With large reflector (55mm), this light should produce excellent throw. With a length of only 14.5 centimeters really can be compared in size with C8 flashlights but with a much further throw and much better build quality.
Manufacturer Reported Specifications:
- LED: Cree XHP35 HI
- Output / Runtime: Turbo: 1300 Lumens / 1.25 Hours, High: 650 Lumens / 3.1 Hours, Medium 2: 300 Lumens / 5.2 Hours, Medium 1: 100 Lumens / 12 Hours, Low: 15 Lumens / 100 Hours
- Peak Beam Distance: 700 Meters
- Peak Beam Intensity: 124,000cd
- Working Voltage: 2.8-4.35V
- USB Charging Current: 2A (overcharge and discharge protection)
- Circuit Driver: PFM/PWM Synchronous booster intelligent conversion
- Reflector: Aluminum Smooth Reflector
- Lens: Toughened Ultra-clear Double Glass Lens with Anti-reflective Coating
- Impact Resistance: 1.5M
- Switch type: clicky switch
- Aero-grade aluminum alloy
- Surface treatment: premium Type III hard anodizxed anti-abrasive finish, thickness >50um
- Feature: Anti-Roll Rugged Design, Cooling Slot of High efficiency, Lanyard, Lightweight, Pocket Clip, Power Indicator
- Battery Quantity: 1 x 18650 / 26650 battery (not included)
- Waterproof Standard: IPX-7 Standard Waterproof (Underwater 1m)
- Dimensions: Product weight: 0.290 kg, Product size (L x W x H): 14.80 x 5.90 x 3.50 cm / 5.83 x 2.32 x 1.4 inches
- MSRP: ~50$ ( on GB sale for 37$ until the end of 2016)
My sample is NW 5000K marked as 3D tint, but I believe it's more like 3B because it has a yellowish color ,no matter the color is really beautiful and much better than XPL HI 5000K versions.
Inside the cardboard box you get the light of course, plastic adapter tube for 18650,O-ring, a very short (30cm) micro USB-charging cable, decent wrist- strap and instruction manual
LED is perfectly centered,and reflector on my sample is without flaw or dust inside.
Compared to EagleEye X6 XPL HI looks like a bigger brother
There is a red LED that serves as a low-voltage warning feature under the switch,activates at 3.3V battery voltage, blue LED is for full battery.
Rubber USB cover really fits well,and fully provides water resistance.
With 2A built-in USB charging this is one of the best futures of this flashlight. In my testing I used a 12W I-pad home charger and managed to achieve 1.97A and completely charge empty (2.9V) Liitokala 26650 5000mAh battery in just 3 hours and 12 minutes. Charging stop at 4.19V which is great. And of course, the 2A charger is not suitable for lower-capacity 18650
Led sits on 28mm copper DTP board,nicely soldered 22AWG wires and good amount of heatsink thermal compound under MCPCB. Driver is just pressed to fit, no glue or retaining ring. There is also a second pcb inside for charging future with clear visible mark for Manker !
Screw threads are square-cut, and anodized for tailcap lockout. There is no electronic lock-out mode ,a quick turn of the tailcap is all you need to lock out the light. Since the switch is electronic, there need to be a some amount of paralistic drain when the tailcap is connected. I measured this as 0.01mAh. So no worries, this means about 80 years to compleatly drain 5000mAh 26650 battery . Knurling is very nice and provide a good grip.
There is absolutely no PWM or any kind of flickering in any mode.
Considering that there was a lot to say about that UT02 is a direct copy of Manker U21, we should make a fair comparison and determine Is it really so. I really do not want to go into details of operations of Chinese companies but due to Utorch used exactly the same components as Manker, with visible markings displayed the question is how this is possible and at what price. Is the quality worse or poor sales led to Manker assign production to someone who is ready for a better offer in the market. But as I said we will not go into it, and the only thing that is important for us as consumers, is the level of the quality.
Fortunately for us UT02 is not behind the U21 neither a little bit, and in some detail is even better, In fact the biggest difference between the flashlights that I had the opportunity to test is the tint color UT02 NW and U21 CW. Automatically it means little more lumens from CW LED.
After revision of the driver Manker reduced power so that neither UT02 or U21 deliver 1300 lumens and much less then 124.000cd.
Do not think this is a bad thing because at least you will not have to think whether the driver will breaks down in a month or not. In reallity in my testings UT02 produce 1000 lumen for NW version,90.000cd for 600 meter of throw and around 1100 lumens in CW version, 100.000cd for 650 meter of throw. Same as latest production U21. You can check that in video below
Packaging is almost the same as the accessories... Mat black finish on U21 and deep black on UT02
At closer look there is a lot of cosmetic difference
UT02 is much more comfortable to hold due to the narrower neck area
UT02 have a true SMO reflector and much better defined hotspot U21 have slightly OP in finish and lot of rings surrounding hot spot
Only difference on tail is UT02 mark Double springs on both and same pcb
Manker Utorch
Conclusion
UT02 is really a great flashlight, although not deliver 1300 lumens, but for this in reality you would need a lot of power and It would not be stable as it is now. Take, for example, any flashlight with one 18650 battery and true 1000 lumens OTF, you would need at least 3.5 - 3.6Amp from battery and it would get hot in a few minutes with significant drop of lumens. With UT02 you can have that output for long period of time without even geting warm,and it will be constant without any drop all the way to the point when battery reach 3.4V !!
For 37 $ as it is right now on group buy link this is really one of the best deal in 2016,since Q8 will go in to next year
Thanks
NikolaS